A flash flood that washed through a town on the Utah/Arizona border has left 8 people confirmed dead and others missing.
All of the victims are mothers and small children who reportedly were sitting in cars watching the rushing waters.
The flooding roared through the streets of Hildale, Utah to Colorado City, Arizona. Heavy rains started Monday night in mountains around the town causing the water to rush into canyons and valleys.
“It happened within like a half-hour, 45 minutes,” Chris Wyler told CNN. “(Then) it was just gone. And then the sun was shining again.”
The two vehicles that contained those who died had 16 people within them. Many were thrown from the vehicles by the force of the water.
Rescuers were forced to call off rescue efforts because of dangerous conditions overnight but resumed work with heavy equipment during the morning.
The collapse of a crane at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on 9/11 is being called an “act of God” by local officials and engineers.
The crane, owned by the Bin Laden family, collapsed Friday killing 107 people just before the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage. Hundreds were left severely wounded by the collapse.
Witnesses said the giant polished white floor of the mosque turned red from the blood of all the victims.
The Saudi Arabia civil defense directorate said that a rainstorm with very high winds swept into the city on 9/11 and toppled the giant red and white crane. The crane then fell into the court of the mosque.
The Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) reported the project had been on that site for almost four years without any problems taking place.
“It was not a technical issue at all. I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all,” an engineer for SBG told reporters.
He said the crane’s heavy hook began to swing in the storm and then caused the collapse.
Japanese officials reported that three people have been confirmed dead in massive flooding that drove over 170,000 people from their homes.
Officials say that one woman was found dead in her floating car in Miyagi Prefecture. Two deaths took place in Tochigi Prefecture, one from a landslide and the other from drowning.
The flooding caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Etau has caused nearly 30 injuries and 22 people are still listed as missing. At least 180 people were still waiting for rescue from the stricken city of Joso, inundated with flood waters after the Kinugawa River jumped its banks.
The storm dumped more than 2 feet of rain in some areas. Residents have reported over 6,500 homes have been flooded.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has raised the flood warning level for both the Yoshida river in Miyagi Prefecture and the Mogamiogumi River in Yamagata Prefecture to “level 5”, the highest possible. Residents have been told to flee the area.
The city of Sendai, with more than 400,000 residents, has been told to prepare for evacuation.
The areas hit by the flood waters are in the path of another storm that could bring another four inches of rain over the next 36 hours.
Sierra Leone officials confirmed to world news outlets the death of a 67-year-old woman from Ebola and the quarantine of the entire village where she was living.
“Over 970 people are being monitored under quarantine as there is information that they had had some contact with the deceased woman who tested positive after her death,” the district Ebola response office said in a report distributed to reporters.
“From those under quarantine, 48 are considered as high risk and they are in various holding centers in the district and not treatment centers, as none of them have exhibited any signs and symptoms of Ebola.”
Local officials say that the woman lived in the village of Sella Kafta and was sick for 10 days without any officials being alerted to her symptoms.
Without any further victims of the disease, the quarantine will last three weeks.
A BBC correspondent on the ground the Sierra Leone said the government is using a stricter quarantine than in previous cases. Residents are being prohibited from moving from house to house.
Soldiers and police are surrounding the town and allowing no one but authorized government officials and health workers to enter or leave the area.
Illinois officials have confirmed another death from Legionnaires’ disease in the same town where seven elderly veterans have died.
The Illinois Department of Public Health says the latest victim was elderly with other health issues like the seven veterans who died from the disease. However, this woman was not in the care of the facility, just in the same town as the veteran’s home, Quincy.
Four other people are now confirmed to have been infected with Legionnaires’ who are not connected to the veteran’s home.
Illinois state public health director Dr. Nirav Shah said it’s possible more deaths will take place because of the two week incubation period of the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control rushed to the veteran’s home to help local officials deal with the outbreak and remain on site to assist the state in finding the source of the outbreak.
“[State officials] do not believe there is an increased risk of Legionnaires’ disease to the Quincy community,” Dr. Shah told reporters despite the new death and illnesses away from the veteran’s home.
Officials have also told residents of the area who are elderly or sick to avoid the veteran’s home.
A suicide bomber who was claimed by ISIS and a car bomb have killed 20 people in Yemen’s capital city.
The suicide bomber detonated at the mosque in Sanaa during the evening call to prayer. The car bomb exploded outside the entrance of the mosque as the victims of the first bombing were being carried outside to emergency personnel.
A message on social media from ISIS claimed the attacks.
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since a rebel group loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh captured the capital city. The rebels have been the subject of Saudi Arabian led and U.S. backed air strikes.
The violence is also starting to be aimed at relief workers and those trying to help the victimized civilian population.
Two Red Cross members were gunned down in the Yemeni province of Amran by an attacker on Wednesday.
“Two of our colleagues were shot and killed in their car …as they were traveling back from Saada to Sanaa,” spokesman Adnan Hizam said from the Yemeni capital.
The Red Cross had stopped work in the southern city of Aden after gunmen stormed their offices.
As tensions continue to swell in Europe over the mass influx of migrants from the Middle East, the photos of a young boy who drowned while attempting to make the journey is causing outrage across the continent.
At least 12 Syrians died when the boat they were using to reach Greece sank in the Mediterranean Sea. The bodies of the victims washed up on the beach including that of a young boy which a Turkish news agency then published and pushed into social media with the hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsnlik, which means “humanity washed ashore.”
Five of the 12 dead are children.
“When mothers are desperately trying to stop their babies from drowning when their boat has capsized […] Britain needs to act,” British Labour Party member Yvette Cooper told the BBC.
Meanwhile, migrants are still protesting outside the train station in Budapest, Hungary where officials are continuing to deny them access to trains to other parts of the EU.
Greece has reported an increase in migrants of 50% in just the last week and have already absorbed more migrants this year than all of last year.
The European Union has an emergency meeting scheduled for September 14th to address the crisis.
Four residents of a veteran’s home in Illinois are dead after an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.
At least 29 other residents of the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home have been infected with the deadly bacterium. Those who died allegedly had severe underlying medical conditions that compromised their immune systems and left them particularly vulnerable to the bacteria.
“The Legionella bacteria can be found anywhere, but it’s usually in small doses that won’t make you sick,” Adams County Health Department Director of Clinical and Environmental Services Shay Drummond told WGEM-TV. “But when a cluster of people get sick like this, it’s very likely there’s one source point.”
Drummond believes the outbreak has been contained to just the veteran’s home.
At San Quentin State Prison in California, six inmates have been confirmed to have the disease with another 51 under observation in the prison’s medical unit.
Prison officials say all cooking at the prison has been shut down and that prisoners are eating box meals until the source of the disease can be found.
In New York City, where 12 people died from an outbreak this summer, a school had to be shut down after the bacteria was found in a cooling tower. City officials praised the school’s quick response and also said the action showed the importance of a new city law designed to combat the disease.
“The Convent of the Sacred Heart School properly disinfected its cooling tower. Its cooling tower’s positive test result, and subsequent disinfection, underscores the importance of the new legislation the Mayor signed just two weeks ago,” the Department of Health said in a statement.
Tropical Storm Erika collapsed before making landfall in Florida but the remnants of the storm are wreaking havoc across parts of three states.
Parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are being doused with torrential rains which has led to flooding and even mudslides.
“It is difficult to pinpoint exactly which locations will see the heaviest rainfall on any given day, but a general swath from the Florida peninsula to the coastal plain of the Carolinas may see heavy rainfall through the first half of the new week,” The Weather Channel said.
ABC 4 Charleston reported that 6.43 inches of rain fell by 10 a.m. making the day already the fifth wettest in the city’s history with the rest of the day to go. Schools across the region were closed and even the city’s trolley service had to be shut down by the flooding.
Fire officials said there was at least one water rescue.
They also reported a dangerous animal situation: a gator was photographed swimming down a flooded residential street. Officials even used drones to patrol the area to make sure the gator couldn’t sneak up on some of the animal control officials sent to capture it.
Much of the city of Charleston is at or just above sea level and the rainfall struck the same time as high tides.
Erika claimed 21 lives before it broke apart after crossing Cuba.
The deadly brain eating amoeba has taken another life.
The family of 14-year-old Michael Riley, Jr. confirmed their son died from naegleria fowleri, or the “brain eating amoeba”, at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
“It is with a heavy heart, that we let everyone know that Michael John Riley Jr. lost his battle on this earth but won a victory for his place in the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the family said in a statement on their Facebook page. “Michael fought a courageous fight over the past week, allowing him to move on to be with the Lord for future heavenly tasks, a beautiful set of wings, and a pair of gold running shoes.”
The death is the fourth this month from someone contracting the deadly amoeba.
Riley was also the second child to die at Texas Children’s Hospital from naegleria fowleri this month.
Riley’s family said their son fell ill after a trip with his track team to swim at San Houston State Park. Doctors couldn’t figure out why the young athlete was suffering from headaches that continued to worsen until they were unbearable until one doctor at Texas Children’s recognized the symptoms from the previous victim.
“It is unknown why certain persons become infected with (Naegleria fowleri) while millions of others exposed to warm recreational fresh waters do not, including those who were swimming with people who became infected,” the Centers for Disease Control said.
Only 3 of the 133 Americans known to be infected with the amoeba since 1962 have survived their infection.